While it's possible to send short message service notifications to cell phones through an SMS gateway provider, these services can end up costing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars over the long term. One of the simplest, and cheapest, alternatives is to use email-to-SMS. Email-to-SMS is free, and as the name indicates, converts email messages into SMS alerts, which are then directed to the appropriate mobile phone. All of the major phone carriers support email-to-SMS.

Open your email client. Select the option to compose a new message.

Enter into the "To" field the 10-digit phone number for the recipient. Exclude dashes or other characters from the number.

Insert "@" following the phone number, and then type the appropriate gateway address for the recipient's carrier. For example, if the recipient's phone number is 123-555-6789 and the carrier is T-Mobile, the address field should be formatted like this: 1235556789@tmomail.net

Enter the desired notification text into the message body. Click "Send" to deliver the SMS notification to the desired recipient.

Tip

You must know the recipient's phone carrier in order to route the SMS alert to the correct phone.

About the Author

Ruri Ranbe has been working as a writer since 2008. She received an A.A. in English literature from Valencia College and is completing a B.S. in computer science at the University of Central Florida. Ranbe also has more than six years of professional information-technology experience, specializing in computer architecture, operating systems, networking, server administration, virtualization and Web design.